


Cinespia at Hollywood Forever

by alocalband



Series: TW Tumblr Ficlets [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-23 05:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9642560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alocalband/pseuds/alocalband
Summary: Los Angeles is pretty much exactly what Derek expected.But he bites back any complaints he might have about it for Laura’s sake. He’s only visiting for a week. He can suck it up and deal with the traffic and the noise and the people for a few days if it means he gets to see his sister for the first time since she made the trek out to his cabin last Christmas.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted [over here on Tumblr.](http://alocalband.tumblr.com/post/147170883960/written-for-the-sterekwriters-summer-bingo)

Los Angeles is pretty much exactly what Derek expected.

But he bites back any complaints he might have about it for Laura’s sake. He’s only visiting for a week. He can suck it up and deal with the traffic and the noise and the people for a few days if it means he gets to see his sister for the first time since she made the trek out to his cabin last Christmas.

To be fair, Laura _is_ trying. Everywhere she’s taken him so far has been fairly low-key and quiet. A hole-in-the-wall sushi bar, a few of the less frequented trails in Griffith Park, a used bookstore with a tabby cat lounging across the register.

It’s been nice, and–well, if not a welcome, then at least a reluctantly needed–change of pace from his daily routine back in small town Oregon.

Tonight is different. Tonight Laura’s decided to drag Derek out to an outdoor movie showing in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and the place is _packed._

He appreciates the novelty of the experience. The ambiance and the friendly, laid-back atmosphere. Even the DJ spinning before the show starts is decent. But the sheer volume of people is a little intimidating, especially when Laura abandons him to go wait in line at the bathrooms.

Derek grabs the bottle of wine they brought with them and takes a swig.

The group of college kids closest to him, spread out across a couple blankets on his right, have thankfully gotten less and less rowdy as the sun sets. Conversation in which most of them tended to shout over each other to be heard, and a brief wrestling match that broke out among two of the guys, has calmed down into murmurs and cuddling as they each pair off for the main event.

Except for one of them. A slim, brown haired guy, who’s now the fifth wheel on what’s suddenly become a double date for his friends.

The man in question doesn’t appear phased by it, as if he’s entirely too used to this turn of events by now. But he doesn’t exactly look _happy_ about it either. He moves away from the others under the guise of getting another beer from their cooler, but then he sits back down nowhere near where he had been, at the very edge of their blanket area.

The guy nurses his new drink and nods his head to the beat of the music, his eyes focused determinedly on the mausoleum where the movie will be projected as he waits for it to start.

Derek doesn’t know why he does it. He’d like to blame the wine, but he honestly hasn’t had that much yet. Or maybe he just sees a little of himself in the man, in this shared ability to feel completely alone when surrounded by other people.

Whatever the reason, Derek finds himself shifting slightly to his right and swallowing down the low buzz of anxiety he always feels when interacting with strangers. “Are you a baseball fan?”

The guy whips his head around to look at Derek, so startled he flails his hands and spills beer on his leg. “What?”

“The movie. It’s about baseball, right?”

The guy blinks at him. His eyes are big, and in the dying sunlight they shine like amber. “Yes?”

“Sorry, I’ve never seen it.”

“Wait, seriously?”

Derek shrugs. “Not really a movie buff.”

“But it’s _The Sandlot_!” He’s so immediately impassioned that he speaks the words with his whole body and Derek can’t help but stare. It’s mesmerizing.

“Well thank god I’m here tonight then, to correct my obviously grievous mistake.”

Those big eyes narrow as they regard Derek thoughtfully, like they’re trying to figure out his angle. Derek’s been told on more than one occasion that he has a “resting murder face,” so he’s pretty sure he’s about to get told to take a hike.

Instead, a hand gets offered. “I’m Stiles. And yes, I’m a baseball fan. Though fuck the Dodgers.”

Derek shakes his hand firmly. “Derek. And as long as you’re not a Yankees fan, I’ll forgive the Dodgers comment.”

Stiles grins. It makes something in Derek’s chest clench. “I practically bleed blue and orange, dude. Mets all the way.”

After that, the steady descent into casual conversation is almost too easy. Derek’s honestly never felt this immediately comfortable with another person. 

It feels like no time at all has passed when Laura returns. She plops down on Derek’s other side, knocking their knees together, and throws an arm over his shoulders. “Hey DerDer, who’s your new buddy?”

Something in Stiles’ expression falls a little, but Derek can’t tell why. 

“This is Stiles. And he is extremely offended that this is my first viewing of such a pivotal film.”

Laura snorts a laugh. “You and me both, kid.”

Despite Stiles’ initial awkwardness at Laura’s presence, he easily joins them in their idle conversation throughout the movie, cracking jokes that leave Laura in stitches, quoting memorable lines along with the characters, hitting Derek on the arm excitedly whenever a “good part” is about to come up and he needs Derek to pay full attention to it.

It’s the most fun Derek’s had in a long time. He begins to not even notice the crowd around him anymore, and Laura’s knowing smirk at the end of the movie tells him she caught that.

They pack up their things, as do Stiles and his friends, and head out to find their vehicles, parallel parked somewhere within the several neighborhood blocks around them. But Derek lingers near the cemetery entrance for a few more minutes, still loudly debating with Stiles over whether Smalls or Benny was the true hero of the story, as a sea of buzzed and/or stoned moviegoers pass them on their way out.

“Okay!” Stiles throws his hands up in the air wildly. “You could not be any more wrong right now, but okay. Let’s just call it a draw and say it was James Earl Jones.”

Derek laughs. “Deal.”

Their gazes catch and hold for an unintentionally long moment. And then suddenly both of them are shuffling their feet and looking away, realizing at once that they’re nowhere near where their own respective friend groups now are.

Stiles clears his throat awkwardly and scuffs his shoe on the sidewalk, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. “So I guess I should let you get back to your girl, huh?”

Derek freezes. “My girl?”

“Laura? She seems really cool, man, hang onto that one.”

“Right. Anyone would be lucky to have her.”

“Right. Exactly.”

“Except that she’s my _sister_ , so…”

Stiles’ eyes snap up to meet Derek’s and his mouth falls open. “…Oh.”

Derek swallows roughly. “She is seeing someone, though. I mean, if you were thinking about–”

“What about you?”

“What _about_ me?”

“Are you… uh, you know. Seeing anyone?”

Derek bites back a small smile. His heart feels impossibly light in his chest, but he tries to tamp it down with logic. “No,” he says carefully, “but I’m only here for a couple more days. I live in Oregon.”

“I love Oregon! I totally have, like, a great aunt or something up there, I swear.”

Derek’s smile is getting harder and harder to contain despite himself. “Well, if you’re ever up that way, let me know.”

“I…” Stiles’ face falls a little. “Yeah. I will. Have a good night, Derek.”

“Good night, Stiles.”

Stiles turns and heads towards the street crossing his friends took almost twenty minutes ago. 

Only to stop short halfway there and mutter a barely audible, “ _Screw it._ ”

He rushes back towards Derek so quickly it’s a wonder they don’t fall over. 

The kiss is as full-bodied and impassioned as Stiles seems to be about almost everything. Though it takes Derek no time at all to temper it into something slightly softer, quiet and reassuring. The start of something solid. Stiles hangs onto him with both hands fisted tightly in Derek’s shirt and the way he falls into Derek’s embrace seems to suggest they’re definitely on the same page.

“So, I’m thinking a road trip is in order,” Stiles whispers as they pull away just far enough to catch their breaths.

“Oh?”

“I’ve still got a month before classes start up again. And, well, I always wanted an excuse to drive up the coast.”

“I see. I’m your excuse, then?”

“What _you_ are is single-handedly selling me on the idea of grad school in Oregon.”

Derek ducks his head, his ears starting to burn with a blush. “It’s barely been three hours since you met me.”

“Have coffee with me tomorrow and it’ll be a few more. I’ll gladly rack up as many as I can get.” Stiles’ grin is no less blinding, his body language no less mesmerizing, now as the moment Derek first noticed any of it. He can’t believe he gets to have this.

“I’d like that,” Derek says, trying to play it cool and admittedly failing spectacularly judging by the blooming heat in his cheeks. He coughs. “Let me put my number in your phone, and we’ll go from there?”

Stiles happily complies. He presses a sloppy kiss onto Derek’s cheek the moment he’s done typing his number in, and then makes a show of giving Derek’s backside a hungry once-over when they part ways.

“You good?” Laura asks, once Derek’s finally joined her in the car.

He smiles and nods, trying not to grin at how his phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with incoming text messages ever since he left Stiles. 

“I’m good,” he assures. Then fists his hands into his own jeans to keep from admitting more. “I’m…” He lets a piece of a smile that’s been struggling for release finally show itself. “I’m glad I came.”


End file.
